Goldendaze-ginnie

Serene 85 year old looking to exchange insightful ideas and remembrances.

Wednesday, March 30, 2016

My Intrepid Niece …

Some
of you might remember my niece Wendy who visited me at Christmastime.
She lives in NY City and is a free lance artist. She's not
constrained by a standard job and can come and go at will. She's
also a great devotee of train travel and proved it last week when she
boarded an Amtrak headed West … a 72 hour trip that climaxed in
Seattle, Washington !

At
first gasp all I could think was ... THREE DAYS ...without the luxury
of a sleeper! But Wendy loved every minute of it. She was able to
sketch, read, write emails and just plain relax. Here are some of
the details that she shared with me as the days wore on:

This
is the detail of the ceiling of Union Station in Chicago. (This
picture has many more details than the others because she was able to
take advantage of the indoor lighting.)

This
sunset is over the swollen Mississippi at La Crosse, Wisconsin.

Minot,
North Dakota. As they say there: “Why not Minot?”

Foothills
of the Rockies toward Glacier National Park. Unfortunately it was
overcast, but still beautiful and they even saw 3 moose!

To
quote Wendy: “It's so
interesting to watch the parade of passengers: Wisconsin
brought whole families of Amish and Mennonite. One Mennonite guy had
a booming cell phone call behind me, talking in the strangest pigeon
German/English.

Minnesota
brought all characters who could have come straight off a Prairie
Home Companion set (I had a long chat with an antique dealer who
specializes in historic bottles. He
does the garage sale circuit, only on a bike! If he buys large items
he goes back with his van, but he says the bike saves him time -
sometimes he rides 30 miles in a day.)
InNorth
Dakota, it's Native
Americans.”

I loved
my vicarious journey with her. It
was a reminder of the
amazing likes and differences that make up our amazing United States.
No wonder the politicians have a hard time appealing to all !

Friday, March 25, 2016

So tame by comparison …

Does
anyone remember this picture?

It's
John Kerry windsurfing in 2004, the year he was making his
presidential run. The Bush campaign had been accusing him of flip
flopping on the issues and when they saw him weaving back and forth
on the waves they cleverly turned it into a negative political ad. I
didn't like the ad but had to admit that it was very effective.

How
tame is that compared to what is going on now in the Republican race
for a presidential candidate? I
don't condone the risque
TV ad that Make
America Awesome
posted about
Donald Trumps current wife posing
naked…
but, in the political world all is fair and it does ask
a legitimate question. Is this who we want for the First Lady of the
United States? Or,
taking it a step further, do we want a President who is currently
with wife #3? (Could #4 be lurking in the West Wing?) Hmmmmm,
just food for thought !

Sunday, March 20, 2016

Windham, Vermont … Circa 1890

This
bucolic scene was the hometown of my great aunt Hattie who was the
Windham Post Mistress for many years beginning in 1890.

The
office was in her home, an old white farmhouse sitting close to the
road. My sister Mary, who died a few years back, remembered staying
with her one summer when she was a 10 year old child. She told me
that many times meals would be interrupted by patrons picking up
their mail, buying stamps, sending packages or simply passing along
the latest news. I guess that the volume of mail must have been low
enough that Aunt Hattie could handle it by herself but it was
certainly a full time job.

However,
it didn’t take all of her time because early in her days as post
mistress she added a new dimension. She was a great reader and had an
extensive personal library. She conceived the idea of cataloging &
displaying her books with the idea of setting up a lending library so
that her neighbors and friends could enjoy them too. I love the
picture of the small library as my sister described it to me. She
said that Aunt Hattie had hand-made wooden step ladders propped
against the wall. The steps of the ladders made perfect shelves for
her books and they were displayed in alphabetical order by author.
Our family has been told that it was the first public library in
Vermont, although I have never been able to confirm that.

I
imagine that Aunt Hattie's home must have been a bee hive of activity
and that makes me smile because, although she never married, I'm sure
she never lacked for companionship !

Tuesday, March 15, 2016

Videos tell what really happened ...

Here
we see
a black man by the name of Rakeem Jones being
restrained by deputies at
a North Carolina rally for Donald Trump on March 9th.
We assume, by the looks of this picture, that he must have been
disruptive and perhaps even resisted the officers, but, no …Jones
had come to the event as a protestor and was being peacefully
escorted out when a 78 year old man in the audience sucker punched
him in the face.That
man is John McGraw, (seen here in the red shirt and cowboy hat and in
the insert) who calmly went back to his seat as the deputies
surrounded and forced Jones to the ground.

No one
in authority questioned McGraw and he stayed for the rest of the
rally.That
could easily have been the end of the story except for multiple
videos that were posted on line showing him punching Jones in the
face and later, actually boasting that “we might have to kill him
next time”. It was only then that McGraw was questioned and
arrested by the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office and was charged
with assault, disorderly conduct and communicating threats.What
is wrong with our country that we allow inequality like this to
happen time and again? Why did the deputies automatically wrestle
the black man to the ground and let the obvious bigot go merrily on
his way? Why was no action taken until the videos made it impossible
to ignore?When
questioned about this Trump replied that he knew little about it but
he has been known to condone these type of actions and even boasted
that he would pay the legal fees if need be. Incredible !!

Thursday, March 10, 2016

Catchy LOGO's

One
of the categories on “Jeopardy” the other night was “Catchy
Logos” and they showed some very clever
ones. I couldn't help but be reminded of how my husband Dick's logo
came to be.

The
year was 1958 and we were living in New York City. Dick had been
a photographer for Life
magazine but had left the year before to start his own free lance
business. We'dfashioned
one of the rooms in our apartment into a dark room and
he was building up his customer base but we realized we needed a
logo for his business cards and other written material. This was
easier said than done.

Then
one night a friend of ours, who happened to be the Art Director for
Swissair, was having dinner with us and we mentioned our dilemma. He
immediately wrote down the pertinent facts ….Name: Richard Dean,
Occupation: Photographer … and in a short time he had it done.
Dick's name in lower case and the way he put it together resembled a
camera. Perfect. It was simple, clear cut and we loved it.

We
even had little glue-backed stamps made up for us in rolls, such as
you see at the Post Office. They included, along with the logo, the
words “Richard Dean Concept” and we would adhere one to each
finished photo before presenting it to a client. I was almost as
proud of our logo as I was of the wonderful photos that Dick took.

Saturday, March 05, 2016

“...that's not what I heard.”

An
interesting thing happened this week. I noticed that one of my close
friends was acting a bit stand-offish and it bothered me. When I
asked her about it she was hesitant and then explained that she
didn't like what I said about a mutual friend. I was very surprised
because I thought I was always supportive and complimentary about
that person. After a good discussion we both came to realize that
what I said was not what she heard and we realized how
important it is to be specific and clear when communicating with
others.

It
reminded me of the story about the man driving a big open truck with
the back filled to overflowing with penguins. He was stopped by a
policeman who explained that this was illegal. He said he wouldn't
give the driver a ticket but that he needed to take the penguins to
the zoo immediately. The driver thanked him and drove off.

Two
days later the policeman was astonished to see the same man with the
same truck and, once again, it was filled to over-flowing with
penguins. The only difference was that all the little birds were
sporting sun glasses ! The policeman stopped the truck and in an
angry voice he told the driver that this time he was getting a ticket
and that he'd better obey him or he'd get jail time too.

The
driver looked very confused and in a trembling voice he said, “But,
officer, I did do what you told me. First I took them to the zoo …
and now we're going to the beach!!”